A Home with Pads and Duckie
by EnthusiasticSloth
Summary: Parenting is a rollercoaster of emotions. Sirius and Marlene have no idea what they're doing but they love Harry, and are really trying. This fic will feature snippits of life after Sirius and his wife Marlene adopt 4 year old Harry. (Takes place after the epilogue of my fic The Dog and the Duckling but can be read as a stand alone.)
1. So Many Questions

It was harder than Sirius could have imagined. He loved the kid with every fiber of his being but he had no idea what he was doing. 3 weeks into bringing his 4 year old godson home, he was barely keeping his head above water.

"Pads…Why doesn't Dopey have a beard?" Harry asked, at 10:47pm on a Thursday night, without a hint of sleepiness in his little voice.

"...What's that?" Sirius shook himself, he'd nearly drifted off the sleep.

"You know. Dopey. From the film. He doesn't have a beard."

Harry had convinced Marlene that they needed a television and film playing machine. She was loathe to say no to the boy so they'd spent the better part of the day trying to figure out how to hook the thing up. Once they had it though, Sirius thought it was probably worth it. It was one way to assure him that Harry would be quiet and content for an hour.

"And you feel as though he needed one, do you?"

"Well all the other dwarves have beards. Is Dopey a girl?"

Sirius thought back on it, and the kid was right. The others had beards. But it was nearly 11 pm and Harry woke with the sun no matter what hour he went to sleep. He didn't have the mental faculties to consider the gender of a cartoon dwarf.

"Dopey is a eunuch" fell out of his mouth.

"What's a eunuch, Pads?"

Fuck. That was even worse than the previous line of questioning.

"It's… someone who can't grow a beard… If I promise that we can watch again tomorrow and look for clues to the great beard mystery, will you go to sleep?"

"Not tired…."

"You must be at least a little tired. I know I'm tired."

"You're old Pads. I don't get tired."

"Kid, I'm 24. This is the prime of my life."

"Yeah but what's that in dog years?"

"Touché"

Harry's little face looked puzzled for a minute. He wasn't quite sure what had just been said. He was pretty sure he'd just said something but he wasn't even sure what that was.

"So why are grapefruits called GRAPEfruits? They're nothing like grapes. And grapes are already a fruit."

"Harry my boy, you know, I've never thought of it quite like that. Perhaps you should ask Kitty. I could help you write a letter tomorrow?"

He was half reminding himself that there were other people in the world that cared. He wasn't in this alone. Aside from his wife and constant partner-in-crime Marlene, he had Minerva Mcgonagall. Harry loved Minerva as a sort of surrogate grandmother and called her Kitty.

Sirius wondered how terrible it would be to ask Kitty if she could babysit so he could take a nap. She'd probably remind him of some sort of sleepless night he'd caused her 10 years ago and tell him to buck up. Gryffindor spirit and all...

"I don't know how to write letters Pads."

"Well you'll need to learn then. I can teach you. That's my job."

"I thought you made maps?"

"Sometimes. But I'm not going to making very many for the time being. I'm going to hang out with you and teach you to write your letters and whatever else a boy of your age needs to be taught."

"Can we get a pet raccoon?"

"Absolutely not." Sirius was used to complete non-sequiturs, but this one was new. Why on earth?

"Why? I've always wanted a pet and Uncle Vernon wouldn't tolerate it. I figured you'd for sure get me my own raccoon."

"Why not a cat or a toad or something?"

"I already have Kitty. She could get jealous."

"Right of course. So it has to be a raccoon? You know the carry rabies?"

"What do they carry them in?"

He laughed to himself and shook his head. Life had gotten really strange in these past few weeks. It was a wonderful kind of strange. He'd never been more tired or more confused in his life, but he was so glad that Harry was finally home, where he belonged.

"Harry... it's time for sleep…"

* * *

Sirius felt tired to the bone when he crawled into his own bed. Harry was an endless well of energy. But Sirius didn't have the heart to leave him by himself for bedtime. He'd been deprived of a loving guardian for so long, he needed him there. So he stayed and tried to be patient while the little boy pulled at his hair and asked 7 million ridiculous questions.

"You look like you've been put through the ringer."

"I'm wounded. I'm no longer Exceptionally Good Looking now that I've given up sleep?"

"Oh shut it. You're just as Exceptionally Good Looking as the day I first blurted it out. But I'm worried you're wearing yourself out. Perhaps I should take the night shift tonight if he has nightmares again."

"That would be much appreciated, little duck."

Sirius leaned in to kiss the top of his wife's golden-brown curls. She worked hard all day as the face of animagus in wizarding Britain, and was proud of her work at bringing respect to the much-neglected branch of magic. Though she was the one with a career, it didn't stop her from helping out with the harder tasks that faced them since Harry had moved in.

"Do you think the nightmares will let up? Should we talk to a healer about it?" Marlene asked. She had benefited greatly from seeing a mind-healer the year after her family was killed. Since then she had a tendency to think everyone needed mind-healing.

"It's not surprising that he has nightmares… those people were awful to him, Marlene. He's terrified. Or rather, he alternates between climbing the walls and trying to eat his weight in sweets and being terrified."

"He's adjusting. We all are. Maybe… put a cap on the sweets… but you're doing a fine job. He looks at you like you hung the moon."

"I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Me either. Maybe that's how all new parents feel."

"Is that what we are?"

Her reply was wordless. She wrapped her arm around him, leaning her body into him. He followed suit and pulled her into his chest.

"I'm glad I'm doing this with you."

"Because you know I'm lost without you?"

"Because Harry still prefers me as a duck. He'd hardly grow up well adjusted if his only parenting came out in quacks, now would he?"

"Well adjusted? That's a bit ambitious. He'll probably break into gringotts on dragon back or something. Hopefully we'll do one or two things right and he'll be a kind hearted little hooligan."

"I should work on spending more time with him out of animagus. Maybe we can all go for a picnic in a muggle park this weekend."

"What, so he can terrorize some other ducks?"

"You said it. Not me."

"We're going to be ok?"

"As long as we're together, the three of us will be ok."


	2. He'll be FINE (Should we floo home?)

"Merlin's pants, mates… he's six years old! We'll be fine. In fact we'll have a grand old time. You didn't need to bother with all these… instructions…"

Remus looked down at the extensive list of guidelines he'd been given for his 3 days with Harry. Surely this was unnecessary.

"You don't understand Moony. I've been with him every day of his life since we brought him home."

"So it's about damned time you took your lovely wife on a vacation."

"Moony, you're not supposed to say 'damned'" Little Harry chided him. It was hard to contain a laugh.

"Why not? You just did."

"Minerva's been poisoning his young mind with this stifling limitation on vocabulary." Sirius rolled his eyes. It was a fruitless battle. At least the kid used profanity in the correct context?

"Well I knew there must have been a reason you decided I'd be the best person to leave in charge."

"Don't flatter yourself Remus. If I really wanted our boy learning some colorful language we'd have left him with Mad Eye." Marlene reminded.

Alastor Moody was another member of their odd little patchwork family. He was tough as nails with a prickly exterior but he'd been the closest thing to a grandfather that Harry had. He'd been fiercely loyal to them since Marlene smarched up to him at the ministry in need to help in getting Sirius a fair trial when he was falsely accused of betraying his closest friends. He'd been important to her late sister and brother-in-law, The Bones family. When your whole family dies in a war, that tenuous connection as enough to forge permanent bonds.

"Well that's a terrifying thought. Mad Eye Moody the babysitter." Remus knew the old man, and like most everyone, found him terrifying.

"But Mad Eye is AWESOME! Did you know his eye can see through people's clothes? Crouch wears frilly knickers. He saw it!"

"Good to know…"

"You're ok too Moony. Because you've always got chocolate."

When Remus finally persuaded them to be on their way, the young couple flooed to the little rented vacation cabin in the woods. It was a strange feeling, to have three whole days to themselves.

"Do you think he'll do alright?"

Sirius worried about the boy as a matter of instinct now. It was impossible to turn off that part of his brain. It was terrifying but there was no helping it.

"Remus might come out of it with a few more grey hairs but Harry will probably have the time of his life. You know he'll send a patronus if anything comes up. Can you please try to relax a bit?"

"I can try. Hey so...there's no one here. Not for miles and miles. I could walk around starkers if I wanted."

"Not to discourage or anything, because believe my I wouldn't mind… but surely you'd get cold?"

"Well yes, but the point is that I could!"

He pulled Marlene into his arms, hugging her so tight that her feet lifted off the floor for just a moment. The couple's height difference was over a foot. Sirius took advantage of her diminutive size and seized the opportunity to pick her up and shower her with tiny kisses all over her freckled face.

"You're a ridiculous person, Sirius Black."

"Harry told me to bring him home a baby brother or sister."

Sirius looked just like Padfoot for a moment.

"He's mentioned it to me too. Stop looking at me like a sad puppy. No. I won't bring a baby into the world until I'm good and certain that things are safe."

She caressed her husband's face gently as he sat down on the sofa, still holding her in his arms. She hated to tell him no, but this was one thing that she stood firm on no matter how much he resembled a very sad puppy.

"It's been years… Harry could be a big brother and we'd get to have our little niffler."

"No nifflers. Pettigrew is still alive. Voldemort could come back."

The couple had talked about these things at length years ago, and were at an agreement that this peace was an uneasy and temporary one. Of course it would have been nice to be able to believe otherwise, especially considering who Harry was and how much of a target he'd become the minute that Voldemort regained any semblance of power. But Marlene refused to live with her head in the sand. Protecting the family that she had left took priority over expanding it.

"I wish he would get on with it then, I'd really like to see him good and dead before it's too late for a niffler."

"Well at least we have our Harry." She reminded him gently.

Though Harry had never called them Mum and Dad, he was theirs, and they were happy to be Duckie and Pads as long as they got to be the people to love him and guide him as best they could in the uncertain world they lived in.

"Yeah. He's a good egg. Probably driving Moony up a wall…"

"I miss him Sirius. It's strange. He's exhausting but here we are, completely free and alone and we miss him."

"Me too. When did we turn into _those people_?"

"Probably when I started taking tea out of a mug that says #1 Duck."

Sirius broke out into a smile that quickly grew into a laugh. Marlene was right behind him. It was nice to know that no matter how surreal things got, they were on the same page.


	3. Games

"That was revolting." Marlene mumbled as she watched the departure of a young blonde woman who had been shamelessly throwing herself at a married man. _Her_ married man, specifically.

"What? Our Harry is quite a charmer."

Marlene rolled her eyes, and handed Harry the change she'd gotten him at the register. He thanked her quickly and ran off to find his favorite muggle arcade game.

"Right. All Harry. The fact she was undressing you with her eyes was totally secondary to the charisma of our 8 year old."

"I didn't notice." Sirius cringed. He really hadn't. It was the sort of thing that doesn't really register after a while. But he still felt irrationally guilty.

"It's like people have never seen a young man caring for a child before…" her voice still rang out irritated.

"So you're saying that I'm only worth the illicit ocular disrobing because we have a kid?"

Be pulled her in close to him, and kissed the top of her hair.

"I wouldn't go that far…"

Marlene found herself looking into her husband's eyes and wishing that they weren't in the middle of an arcade full of muggles and their children. She really was a lucky woman...

"Right because I seem to remember something about a 4th year scribbling my name all over her notebooks?" He smirked. He would never let that go, even after all this time.

"Oh shut it. And it's my name thank you very much. I was just a little premature."

Just then Harry came bolting in their direction.

"Duckie! They're after me! Hide me!"

Harry made a futile effort at hiding behind Marlene as a strangely familiar looking muggle wearing a nametag that read 'Nigel F.' approached.

"Are you this boy's parents?" Nigel the arcade employee asked in a way that sounded a lot like an accusation.

"That depends… what did he do?" Sirius asked through a cringe.

"I did nothing!I demand a solicitor!"

At that point they noticed he was shoving an inordinate number of gold arcade tokens into his pockets.

"I don't know how he did it but he made the machine spit out tokens."

"So you didn't actually see him do anything?" Marlene raised an eyebrow.

"Ah well. I guess he gets it from you. Get out of here. The lot of you. Don't come back."

"Fine then! We can find some place that doesn't have faulty machines!"

As the family of three turned heel and left Sirius leaned in and whispered to Marlene.

"Who knew Filch had a kid who works in a muggle arcade?"

"The implication that someone did the deed with Argus Filch will haunt me for the rest of my days…"

"What are you whispering about, Pads? Duckie?"

"Nothing Harry... Who wants ice cream?"


	4. A Troll? Really?

Marlene shook her head at the letter Minerva had owled them earlier that same day. They'd both read over it twice but it was still a lot to take in. They'd gone into the year expecting some wild letters detailing Harry's first year escapades, but a _troll_? Really?

"I swear I never encountered a troll during my academic career." Sirius sighed. This kid was intent on giving them a run for their money.

"Right and of course you'd have gone looking"

"As if you wouldn't have."

"No you're right. Our Harry comes by it completely honestly."

Sirius looked sad for a moment. It was always a question in his mind how much Harry was like the parents who'd given him life and how much he was like the couple who'd ended up raising him. He hoped James and Lily would be proud of the way their boy had grown. In truth he was like all four of them.

"Lily wouldn't have gone looking for a troll. But it seems like the little girl who just happened to be in the bathroom was just as vital in bringing the thing to heel."

"Well it'll be good for Harry to have a friend like that. I do hope that he and the Weasley boy keep her around."

Harry had a long history with Ron Weasley, Marlene recalled. The pair of them were fast asleep in Ron's crib at the burrow the night that Sirius finally admitted that he loved her. Back when everyone was still alive… it was hard to think about those days.

With the help of a mind healer and the patchwork family that came together in the wake of tragedy, Marlene was a happy person, but not the same person she'd been when her family was alive and she was just a teenager, unknowingly meeting the baby boy who she'd raise.

"I'm certain they will. Fighting a troll today together and all. That's a little like the Marauders origin… I mean we were only fighting Avery and Snape, but…they looked quite a lot like trolls?"

Sirius's face dropped. The whole experience of sending Harry off to his first year of Hogwarts brought up painful memories for them both. It was to this day, difficult for Sirius to reconcile the image of Peter Pettigrew, the bumbling little boy with whom he shared a dorm for 7 years, with the fact he betrayed James and Lily and tried to frame Sirius. He was a murderer and a backstabbing little rat on the run, but he had also been their friend once. He had been the one they'd been trying to defend, that day in 1st year. James was his fiercest defender… and he still trusted him to the end. What had happened?

It was a pointless rumination. He shook himself out of it. They were here and now and Harry had recently stuck his wand up the nostril of a troll.

"Where'd the troll even come from?" Marlene mused. Absentmindedly pulling at one of her springy spiral curls.

"I dunno. Maybe the troll market? Trolls n things?"

Sirius had laughter growing in his eyes. It was one of the things that Marlene loved most about him. They could always make each other laugh, no matter what challenges life presented them with. Laughter that started with a glint in steel grey eyes was the constant in her life that she was most grateful for.

"Ah yes. Someone just went out and got one at the shop and left it in the loo. Seems as logical an answer as any" She set the letter down and found her way to her husband's lap, and pressed her forehead against his. They were a good team. Parenting this kid was bumpier than a ride on the night bus, but they would always have each other to hold onto along the way.

"This shouldn't be funny. He could have been badly hurt." Sirius chided. He was surprisingly mother-hen-ish when it came Harry, but Marlene knew that didn't actually render him humorless.

"But he wasn't. So it sort of is…"

"Yeah… We should write to him. What's the done thing for a kid's first conflict with a troll? Do we send chocolates? A howler?"

"Why not both?"

"I love you, you know that? I couldn't do this without you."

"You'll never have to."


	5. Vernon is terribly duck-phobic

1995

The neighborhood playground in Little Whinging wasn't a very lively place on a hot afternoon in July. On an old wooden park bench, sat a visibly disgruntled couple with an uncomfortable looking teenage boy between them.

The tawny skinned woman with a mass of spiral curls on her head looked ready to breathe fire. No one would have wanted to mess with Marlene right then, despite the fact she wasn't exactly the traditional definition of intimidating. Even as a grown witch of 32, her freckles and sunny smile in combination with her diminutive stature meant that she was still referred to as "cute". Marlene was, however, quite confident that she'd attained more gravitas about her since the first time she'd visited Little Whinging, nearly 13 years prior.

On the other side of the bench was a tall and striking man with high contrast coloring and a posture that suggested he found his surroundings to be unsanitary. Sirius disliked this place as much as his wife Marlene.

Their disdain for the muggle aspirational middle-class neighborhood had everything to do with the Lanky black haired boy who sat between them. Harry had been forced to live in this horrid place with even more contemptible people for 3 whole years of his early childhood.

Dumbledore was a little bit like royalty in wizarding Britain. Wizards never really went all in with the royalty thing, but regardless of that fact, Dumbledore reigned supreme. He was allowed to make decisions, sometimes despite lacking any sort of relevant official authority.

Sirius Black had been named as Harry Potter's godfather. There was a signed magical document that said so. Though Marlene hadn't been able to make her position official before the Potters were murdered, they'd asked her to be Harry's godmum. But Sirius's claim alone should have been enough for the couple to take guardianship of the boy when he was orphaned.

Yet Dumbledore wouldn't allow it.

When the Blacks finally did bring Harry to live with him the word "kidnapping" was thrown around in the papers. Dumbledore certainly didn't contest it. He did, upon viewing a pensieve memory incriminating Harry's muggle relatives, agree to give the Blacks custody of their godson.

That had been just over 10 years ago. There had been conditions to Dumbledore's agreement to let them have their godson and overlook the "kidnapping". One such condition was why they were all there today.

Harry had to stay with his mother's muggle sister and her family for for several weeks while Dumbledore investigated… something. Despite the fact they hated him and he them. Despite the fact he had a loving home and family. He was required to undergo this torture, even when not a month ago he'd seen a schoolmate murdered. He'd survived an encounter with the newly resurrected Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore said it was for his safety and gave some vague explanation about blood magic. The Blacks didn't like it.

They didn't want to leave him. The family of three had all seen more than their share of death, but it had been a constant source of comfort that they didn't have to bear it alone. Harry shouldn't be left to his own thoughts with people who were cruel to him so soon after experiencing such a blow.

"Well it looks like everyone up and moved. Perhaps we should go on home." Sirius drawled.

He had to stop and remind himself that muggles didn't have the benefit of personal cooling spells. Thus, were probably compensating with some sort of indoor cooling what's-it. Did muggles all gather in one place when it got very hot out? It seemed like they might, because they certainly weren't out in the neighborhood today.

The family of three were the park's only occupants as far as they could tell. Someone could have been hiding. Marlene wouldn't have put it past that slimy reporter Rita Skeeter. The fact that woman's animagus was a bug and she'd not yet been squashed with an old boot was baffling to most people who'd spent any amount of time with the writer for the Daily Prophet.

"I'll be fine!"

Harry's tone was about what his godparents had come to expect from the 15 year old. He'd had a hard time sleeping since the ill fated third task of the Triwizard Tournament. Horrific trauma, it turned out, did nothing to improve upon the usual surliness of late adolescence.

"I know but you're my little boy and I can't stand leaving you. You're sure you don't want me to stay on as a duck?"

"It'll never work, Marlene. Vernon is terribly duck-phobic, for one."

A hint of a smile showed in Harry's bright green eyes as he addressed his godmother.

"I'm not sure I'll ever be alright with all this 'Marlene' business. But I'm glad I made an impression that time."

Her attack upon Vernon Dursleys's ankles was one of Marlene's top 5 duck related memories. But she missed the days when the boy she'd raised and loved as her own called her "Duckie". He'd decided he was a grown wizard now and had started calling both godparents by their given names.

"I'll be a foot taller than you by the end of the year, _Marlene_."

"Be nice to your godmother Harry. She's quite vicious as a duck, you know."

"But it's true. I will be a foot taller."

"You'll be our little boy even if you get a foot taller than me. But please don't get that tall. You'd have to go to Hagrid's tailor."

"You're really not as funny as you think you are, you know that?"

"I said the same thing to your dad a time or two."

"He was probably very funny."

"He was" Marlene chimed in.

James and Lily Potter were a constant presence in their lives despite their deaths when Harry was just over a year old. Sirius kept their memories alive and made a promise to himself a long time ago that he would never try to replace James.

James had been everything to him once. He'd been his first real friend. The first person who was genuinely kind to him. James changed Sirius's life in a way that he never stopped being thankful for.

But James was gone and Harry was here. Sirius had been caring from him since he was knee high to a bowtruckle.

Marlene's career mattered. She cared about training new animagi and it was already a huge part of her by the age of 21, when they first brought Harry home. Sirius still made a few maps here and there for people who'd commissioned him to do so. They were good works of magic and he was proud of them, but Magical Cartography wasn't _who_ he was. It was an easy choice that Sirius would be the one to take on the role of primary caregiver to the little boy. He'd taught him how to read and do arithmetic. He'd taught him all the things he figured a kid ought to know and a few things he was rather iffy about. He had a hard time with the exact definition of age appropriate language, for instance. But every day he spent caring for his departed friends' son he felt more like a father.

Marlene refused to consider pregnancy until the war was really and truly over and she felt safe. So, Harry was their only experience with child rearing. But Sirius felt pretty sure that he loved Harry as much as he might love a son of his own blood.

He stayed committed to keeping James and Lily's memory alive, but often times felt uncomfortably jealous of his long dead best friend.

"If you can't stand these muggles any longer you've got the mirror, right?"

"Yes Sirius… I have the mirror. Honestly… you realize I've faced down the most dangerous wizard of the age and lived to tell about it more times than… I dunno… nearly anyone. You think I can't take a week of Vernon Dursley?"

"Harry… you haven't been targeted by the Dark Lord because we thought it was acceptable. We would have been there in your place every time. Merlin, we'd have gone in after you if we'd been alerted."

"I guess you're about as clueless as I am."

He didn't say it to be harsh. Everything just came out harsh these days. He really did feel clueless about his own life. His godparents weren't any better informed, if he were going to take them at their word. He wanted to be able to take them at their word. He hoped he had _someone_ who he could trust to be honest with him. It was too bad that the only people who he was sure had more information had a vested interest in keeping him in the Dark about his own destiny.

 _Fucking Destiny. Once in a while I'd just like for destiny to leave me alone._

"If you just want to talk, we'll have our mirror at hand. We love you."

Sirius enveloped his godson into a hug. At first he flinched back from it as teenage boys are wont to do with their parents, but then the comfort of the history they shared kicked in. Playing chase with Pads and Duckie in their animagus forms, Duckie would always eventually get caught and he could hear her laughing through her quacks. His godparents were there waiting, when he made his way out of The Chamber of Secrets. They didn't get mad that he had gone about it all wrong, but told him how very proud of their boy they were, for how brave he'd been. He felt so helpless to destiny but Marlene and Sirius had always been there no matter what disaster Destiny doled out.

"All right all right. Love you too, Pads."


	6. Haircare related antipathy

"I've got word from Dumbledore."

"Out with it then."

"The long and short of it is that he wants Harry in private Occlumency lessons. He thinks Voldemort is performing some sort of long rage Legilimency on him to find weaknesses. I don't like the way he talks about Harry… Never have."

Marlene's emotions were plainly visible in her posture, even more so than in the expression on her face. She'd been that way as long as Sirius had known her. It was easy to tell that she was uneasy and reluctant to discuss the subject at hand. Dumbledore was never a straightforward topic of conversation in the Black household. At times, he was the most important ally that they had in the fight against Voldemort, but there were other times when it felt like he was an adversary in the fight to raise a child who they loved and wanted to protect. It was him who kept Harry from them for nearly 4 years. It was him who made him spend time at those horrible muggle relatives house every summer, despite their concrete proof that he was mistreated there. Dumbledore had too much power, the couple were at an agreement.

"Well I don't like it either but he probably knows what he's talking about regarding Voldemort. So it's probably in Harry's best interest to go ahead and cooperate with the Occlumency lessons. How terrible could it be? Spending some extra time in Dumbledore's office won't kill him. He's there often enough as it is."

Sirius gave a hint of a smile. Their boy was a lot like them. He'd never met a rule that he wouldn't break if it suited him. It was easy to see how he was like his parents, both James and Lily and the godparents who raised him.

On the other hand it was more complicated with Harry. Everything was, from the moment Voldemort marked him as his equal and prophesied enemy. He wasn't a typical boy, and as much as Sirius would have liked to give him a normal adolescence, the war was kicking into gear and it wouldn't wait. It was worrisome that the boy would only listen if he wanted to.

"Try again. Severus Snape is meant to tutor him."

"Good Godric! What the hell is the old man thinking? Snape?"

"Snape."

"Fucking Snape. The arsehole is about as mature as Harry himself. He never progressed past about 15. It's a wonder Dumbledore keeps him on as a teacher when he's like that."

"It's one of those 'Dumbledore will be Dumbledore' things. But regardless of the particulars of why, we need to decide how we're going to deal with this?"

"If we said no, would it change anything?"

"Probably not. You know Dumbledore is going to do what he sees fit."

"So we'll support the lessons, but we keep a close eye. Harry needs more information. Which is problematic if Voldemort has figured out how to read his damned mind…Morgana, we need more information. And we need Harry to keep confiding in us."

Marlene leaned back into the sofa, folding her thin legs under her. From above she still looked like mostly hair.

Sirius budged towards her and put an arm around her. At 32, Marlene was a powerful witch and an authority in some circles, but Sirius never got over his impulse to protect her. He was fairly useless at it in practice but he was glad she kept him around anyway.

"What 15 year old boy wants to confide in his parents? He's the fucking chosen one and all but he's still 15 with all the qualities of a less chosen 15 year old. We're lucky he still writes at all."

"Well If I had us as parents I'd want to confide in us. We're amazing."

"Right. Of course" she rolled her eyes and leaned into her husband's chest.

"I'll owl Hermione. She has a little more sense than the other two."

Marlene thought probably most 15 year old girls had a little more sense than their male peers, but not all. She thought back onto her own youth. She'd… well she hadn't been much like Hermione Granger. Hermione was more like the Grace McKinnon of her generation. So Marlene would trust her. She would need to word it carefully because she didn't want to sound like she was spying on Harry or didn't trust him. It was all a matter of putting as many safety nets as possible around her Harry, who was in enough danger without taking into account his normal teenage tendencies to roll his eyes at adults.

"Do you have to do that tonight or can we head on to bed?"

"The night is young and our Harry is away at school! We can't go to sleep at 9pm. It's criminal."

"I said nothing about sleep." He gave her a suggestive smirk and wasted no time in scooping all not-quite-7-stone of Marlene into his arms and proceeding to their bedroom.

Sirius was just as infuriatingly handsome in his mid-thirties as he had been 15 years prior when the two fell in love. They'd been tested as hard as just about any couple could be only a year into their relationship, but somehow they came out of it solid.

Marlene hoped Sirius would be able to pick her up and bring her to bed for many years to come. She hoped he'd get old and grow a long grey beard of wisdom someday, but for the time being they were still relatively young and she really enjoyed this. The feeling of safety in his arms made life easier. The world was scarier by the minute, but she wasn't in it alone.

She melted into his kiss and forgot about her worries, at least for the night.

* * *

To my dearest darling godson Harry,

I've gathered some information with regard to Professor Umbridge that I think you'll find interesting. Is your mail being monitored? Are you SURE? Think closely. Go ask Hermione.

Because of my fears that the Ministry has taken control of Hogwarts , I shall not include any sensitive information in this letter. But we will speak in person at your next visit to Hogsmeade, I give you my word.

You missed the priceless face your Pads made when he got the news that you'll have to do tutoring with Snape. Those two go way back, so I hear. It was all before my time. My opinions on the man are mostly hair-care related. You know how I get about hair-care. When one has as much hair as I do, you come to understand the importance of caring for it.

How do you find owl year transfiguration. I know it's Kitty's class and all but I mean the material. I remember the spell work getting both challenging and fun that year. I started considering careers in transfiguration that year. I know that you prefer defense and understand it's an important practical skill when you're you, but you are a talented wizard in more than one area. If you were any other boy you'd have every career door there is wide open to you. (Except maybe seer. But who wants to see anyway?) I am so sorry that you have to be The Chosen One and can't opt out.

You'll meet us in the usual spot on your Hogsmeade visit?

Your loving and devoted godmother,

Duckie


End file.
